


Fluttering Eyelashes and a Table for Two

by Princessfbi



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Carjacking, Date Night, Eddie Diaz Takes Care of Evan "Buck" Buckley, Eddie Diaz is Peak Boyfriend Material, Established Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley Deserves Nice Things, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Soft Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Soft Evan "Buck" Buckley, Soft Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 11:14:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30020928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princessfbi/pseuds/Princessfbi
Summary: Eddie’s knuckles ached from how tightly he was grasping onto Buck’s thigh. He was probably clawing bruises into his skin but it didn’t matter. Buck’s hands were just as tight around Eddie’s wrist keeping him there. Neither of them seemed willing to let go and it would take more than a threat of a bullet for Eddie to be the first.Buck and Eddie's date night takes a turn for the worse.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 466





	Fluttering Eyelashes and a Table for Two

The weight of Buck’s hand with his fingers tangled around Eddie’s was one of Eddie’s absolute favorite things in the world. Buck had been timid when they’d first started dating; hesitant to make the first move but always so slightly amazed when Eddie just did it for them. When Eddie got tired of watching Buck make a few aborted attempts to hold hands those first couple of dates— reaching out and catching himself as he curled his fingers in— Eddie rolled his eyes and tangled their fingers together himself. Buck’s eyelashes had fluttered in surprise as that shy smile stretched across his face and continued to do so with every physical boundary they crossed as a couple. 

Eddie was pretty sure Buck had almost passed out from the shock when Eddie had ducked his head down, cradling Buck’s jaw with his hand, and kissed him with fond exasperation after too many lingering stares at his lips and heated pauses between them.

But he was getting better at reminding himself that Eddie wasn’t going to run for the hills every time Buck wanted to touch him. He was getting a lot better at ignoring the anticipation of rejection and risking it all just to settle his weight into a kiss or to hold hands or even a hug.

Buck’s hand tucked against his as Buck plucked it from Eddie’s side and tangled their fingers together. Eddie lifted their hands to his lips and kissed the knobs of Buck’s knuckles with a smile and watched as that bashful grin crept back across on Buck’s face with that fluttering surprise.

Eddie couldn’t get enough of Buck’s touch and there wasn’t a force in the world strong enough to ever knock that desire that sung across his nerves. To Eddie, Buck’s touch was like coming home. Home where he could be himself and not worry about everyone else. Where he could be Eddie— just Eddie— and that was enough.

Date night was a rarity for them. Between raising a kid, work, and a rather full life they were blessed to have with friends and family, going out just the two of them didn’t quite fit into the schedule as much as Eddie would like. But he wanted to try. Because Buck deserved to have time made out for him where he felt treasured and a priority. Eddie did too but that was harder to admit. It’d taken a lot of therapy and some honest, hard conversations for Eddie to untangle himself enough to know that when it came to his relationships, particularly with Shannon, Eddie had a tendency to get a little complacent. He’d been so used to piling responsibility after responsibility on his plate that he’d made Shannon into another item on a list to be checked off. He took her for granted. He knew that he wasn’t completely to blame for their relationship and he was working on not trying to put the weight of that guilt on one end of the spectrum. 

But that was a process. A long one and had nothing to do with how he treated Buck. Or... it did in the sense that it reminded him that the mistakes he made with Shannon were mistakes he didn’t want to repeat with Buck. 

Buck, who’d been taken advantage of and then tossed aside enough times to be surprised when Eddie held his hand in public, deserved to be reminded that he was a priority too. 

Eddie just wanted Buck to be happy.

It helped that Buck was easy to please. Buck would’ve been happy with just some beer and burgers before they started making out on the couch like a couple of teenagers but that had become so normal for them it’s almost a routine now. Surprising Buck with Thai food could have him beaming for a week but Eddie wanted to do something nice. Something a little different. Something that would remind Buck that he mattered to Eddie and would maybe start to sweep away at that all too common flutter of disbelief in his eyelashes. 

Finding a place to eat was easy. Buck was willing to try just about anything. Buck got almost more enjoyment just going out to eat than he did from the actual food itself.

 _“We didn’t eat out a lot,”_ Buck had said one time even after some bad tacos and tasteless dessert didn’t seem to shrink Buck’s spirits of getting to go out. _“But Maddie would sneak me out and we’d eat McDonalds in her Jeep. It wasn’t much but it was kind of perfect, you know?”_

Eddie was a little less adventurous as Buck when it came to food but he’d settle for any place that had a good sandwich somewhere on the menu.

The restaurant they’d ended up in had been recommended to them by Karen, so Eddie knew he’d find something and he knew _Buck_ would have a good time regardless which was all Eddie cared about.

And he did. Buck had looked like a dream beneath the strings of fairy lights that made his skin glow and caught on the arches and slopes of his curls. He’d been growing his hair out more and Eddie couldn’t argue that he wasn’t fond of the extra fluff. The restaurant was tucked away in the middle of a sprawling square along Ballona Creek. Long stretches of grass were filled with people taking in the warm night air with a street hustler or two making a few bucks outside a small café with their guitars. One bar was booming as people slowed their bikes along the bike path and stopped in for a beer. In Los Angeles, it was hard to find such a small tucked away oasis that wasn’t overrun by tourists and Eddie would need to remember to thank Karen the next time he saw her.

But Buck was having a good time. Eddie could tell from the pink in his cheeks and the way he swung their hands between them a little as they walked off their dinner to his truck parked in a small lot. The sun was nearly gone in the horizon and cast deep midnight blue across the sky as the taste of saltwater met their tongues on the breeze. Aside from the never ending first responder sirens— a sound they’d both gotten used to ignoring— it was a quiet, peaceful, wonderful night.

Buck was having a good time and Eddie very quickly realized, he was too.

“We should do this more often,” he said as Buck tugged him out of the way of a cyclist.

That flash of surprise and the fluttering of his eyelashes. Eddie loved it but he wished soon he wouldn’t see it as often. Buck smiled at him and nodded.

“Yeah? I’d like that,” Buck said. “Maybe next time I can surprise you?”

Eddie would never get tired of hearing that shy hope in Buck’s voice.

_“You’re a badass under pressure, brother.”_

_“Me?”_

Eddie stopped and swung Buck around with the momentum of his arm, feeling silly and in love, and wanting Buck to know that too. Eddie let go of his hand long enough to slip his arms around his waist and pulled him close. He tilted his head up just enough for Buck to get the gist of what he was going for and Buck smiled, somehow both bashful and confident, as he cupped Eddie’s face and kissed him.

It was kind of crazy how well they fit together. How easily their lips connected when pressed against each other. How in sync their heartbeats would echo one another. How perfect the lines, the ridges, the slopes of Buck’s body filled the space of Eddie's hand. How the parts of Eddie that were rough and prickly were caressed by Buck’s softness. How the bouncing energy that thrummed beneath Buck’s heels could be soothed by Eddie’s steadiness. 

Eddie was trying to do better at not wondering what Buck was doing with a guy like him. He knew that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to Buck and it wasn’t fair to himself. But Buck was so warm. Warm in a way that Eddie had forgotten, to be honest. Warm and unabashedly generous in sharing of that. Like he was the sun and it was nothing for him to shine down some of his warmth onto anyone who needed it. 

Buck was the first person who didn’t expect anything from Eddie. He didn’t push and he didn’t demand. He just took Eddie for who he was and embraced him, scars and all.

Coincidentally, Buck who asked of nothing was the one person who deserved everything.

He couldn’t give Buck the world but he could try.

Eddie wasn’t sure which one of them broke away but he knew that by the time they did, his lungs were on fire that spread down to the very tips of his fingers. Buck curled his arms around Eddie’s neck and ducked his head down to hide against the hollow of his throat. A flush was creeping up Buck's pale skin that had nothing to do with the wine from dinner. Eddie hummed as he slipped his hands into the back pockets of Buck’s jeans.

“You want to head home?” Eddie asked, swaying them a little as he relished in the feeling of Buck’s weight against him. “Go round two on dessert?”

Buck chuckled and the hot fanning of his breath ghosted across Eddie’s skin. “I don’t know. That brownie was pretty awesome.”

Eddie scoffed and pinched Buck’s butt in retaliation before he pulled away and started walking to the truck. He pressed the unlock button on his key fob and then pressed it again until his lights flashed back at him. His key battery was dying and he seriously needed to remember to get it fixed before it crapped on him.

“Okay! Okay!” Buck laughed as he ran to catch up with Eddie and snatched up his hand again, tangling their fingers together. “Okay! I’m sorry. You’re much better than the brownie.”

Eddie feigned indifference until Buck leaned over to kiss him on the cheek with a sweet peck. Then with a snag of his belt loops, Eddie spun Buck and boxed him up against the truck. Eddie cupped the back of Buck’s neck and pressed a searing kiss against his lips that should’ve left him breathless and dizzy all over again. He pushed past the seal of his lips with his tongue like he was trying to lick the very memory of the brownie away and nipped at Buck's top lip until it was swollen and plump. Eddie pushed his hips against Buck’s, pinning him against the driver's side and licked the moan from Buck away too. Buck hung on to Eddie like he was the only thing keeping him afloat. Given Buck’s growing interest stirring against Eddie’s thigh, he could argue that he probably was.

He pulled away with a smack of their lips and took in the picture his boyfriend made beneath him. Lips swollen and spit slick. Two delicious pink blooms in his cheeks. Those beautiful fluttering eyelashes against his skin.

“Brownie?” Buck asked, his voice pitchy and hoarse at the back of his throat. “What brownie?”

Eddie smirked at him and gave him another quick kiss.

“Get in the car,” Eddie said with a jerk of his head.

Another sharp siren blasted across the calm of the night and the urgency in the tone was jarring.

“Man!” Buck whistled as a few cruisers flew by. “I wonder what we’re missing tonight.”

Eddie could see the thought fly across Buck’s expression and he pointed a finger at him.

“No.”

Buck grinned as he opened the passenger door and it was cute how he thought he could play innocent with Eddie. Eddie slid into the driver’s seat and pulled his seatbelt over his chest.

“I wasn’t thinking anything!” Buck argued as he clicked his seatbelt into place.

“Uh huh.” Eddie hummed as he turned the key in his ignition.

He wrinkled his nose as the smell of cigarettes filled the cab— someone must have been smoking by the truck— and made a mental note to air it out once they got back to the house.

The engine roared to life and while the monthly payments on the truck were a beast, Eddie still couldn’t bring himself to feel too guilty for purchasing it. Not when his last one required a wish and a prayer to turnover some days.

Eddie put the truck in reverse and settled his hand on Buck’s thigh as he turned.

The face of a stranger staring back at him shot a piercing cold blade into his chest and twisted until his heart jerked against his ribcage.

“Don’t move,” the man said, his voice sounding like smoke and gravel. “Don’t make a sound.”

The sound of the hammer drawing back as the man raised his gun made Eddie’s ears pop.

Buck wrapped his hands around Eddie’s wrist and froze as the barrel was pushed in the space under his headrest and pointed at the base of Buck’s neck.

“You give me any trouble and I’ll shoot him. Now, put the truck in park and turn around.”

Eddie lifted his free hand slowly and pushed the truck back into park.

“We don’t want any problems—”

“Shut up!” The man barked.

“You can just take the truck and leave—”

“ _Shut up!”_

Buck bit back a grimace as the man surged forward and grabbed a fistful of Buck’s shirt collar. Buck’s seat bounced as he was pulled back against it with the jerk and his hands around Eddie’s wrist turned painfully tight.

Another series of police sirens shrieked into the air and Eddie watched as they drove by in his side view mirror one after another.

It didn’t take much to put together that the sirens that were like background music for Buck and Eddie were searching for their additional passenger. How long had he been waiting in the truck? Eddie was so used to blocking out the sirens he couldn’t even pinpoint when he started to hear them. How had he even gotten in?

Eddie’s knuckles ached from how tightly he was grasping onto Buck’s thigh. He was probably clawing bruises into his skin but it didn’t matter. Buck’s hands were just as tight around Eddie’s wrist keeping him there. Neither of them seemed willing to let go and it would take more than a threat of a bullet for Eddie to be the first. 

Eddie risked a glance over to the passenger side. Buck was staring firmly at the dashboard with the press of the gun barrel at the base of his skull. The fist at his shirt collar was pulling the fabric tight across his throat and making the material twist with each ragged breath Buck took to keep calm. They’d all faced some of the grisliest scenes with some of the most gruesome people that had been spat out into the world but Eddie knew it was different when it was pointed at you. _Particularly_ when it was pointed at you and Buck knew it too. Even if Lola hadn’t meant to hurt anyone that day on the freeway, Buck’s hands still didn’t stop shaking for hours after that call when she’d pointed the gun at him with the barrel still glowing hot from shots she fired at the ground. But they always faced those things together and this was no different. Besides the paleness along his skin and the fear that sunken his cheeks and darkened his eyes, Buck seemed physically okay. 

Streaks of blue pierced through the haze of tension as Buck looked up at him as if he could feel Eddie’s gaze. They couldn’t speak but it was okay. They were okay. They would be okay. Eddie rubbed his thumb back and forth on Buck’s knee. 

Silence descended over them in a slow wave after the last of the sirens disappeared into the night and they sat in it for a moment too long. An itch picked up under Eddie’s skin and the instinct to act, to fight, was plucking away at his nerves like they were too taunt strings. But if the gun pressed against Buck’s skull wasn’t motive enough to keep him still, then the faint trembling he could feel rippling up Buck’s leg was.

“Unbuckle your seatbelt!” The man demanded and Buck let go of Eddie long enough to do so before his hand was back around Eddie’s wrist with a white knuckle grip. 

They’d been in enough emergency situations to know that the safest thing to do was to comply but it didn’t make watching Buck’s minute shaking up and down his fingers any easier to watch. He clamped his hand down tighter on his thigh. 

“Come on!” The next order was barked and suddenly the fist on Buck’s shirt switched sides and was pulling Buck across the center console and back. “Come on!” 

“He stays up here!” 

Eddie’s voice was steady and clipped but even he could hear the tight edge across his words. Buck’s top half was pulled across the center console and he was so close Eddie could feel his breath on his neck. Buck could press his head into the crook of his shoulder if he wanted. Eddie’s arm was trapped beneath his body but he didn’t let go and neither did Buck. But the man was so close and the cigarette smell reeked off him in pulsating plumes until it almost made Eddie’s eyes water. The man let go of Buck’s shirt and wrapped his arm around Buck’s throat as he yanked him back further. Buck’s jeans slipped beneath Eddie’s clawed hand a little. 

“If he doesn’t want me to blow your brains out then he comes in the back with me.”

“Eddie.” The threat had Buck choking out his name, torn between wanting to protect Eddie but also not wanting to let him go. 

“Come on!” The man snapped again as he dragged Buck into the back seat. 

It was an awkward mess of limbs as Buck’s top half was yanked back easily but his legs got caught on the dash with a kick and pinned his hips in an uncomfortable twist. 

Eddie didn’t let go. Even as Buck’s knee slipped past his hand until there was nothing left but open air, he didn’t let go. Buck’s legs fell into the backseat in a heap that rattled the back of Eddie’s seat. He kept his eyes firmly locked on the rear view mirror and watched as the man settled himself into the seat with Buck draped across him. Buck’s long body was folded and crammed half on the seat and half off but his hands that had been clutching at Eddie’s wrists were curled around the man’s forearm as it circled across his windpipe. The gun was firmly placed against Buck’s temple as the man hunched down so they were partially out of view of the window and met Eddie’s gaze. 

“Start driving, _Eddie_.”

Eddie bit his lip as he put the car in reverse and turned to look again. His eyes locked onto Buck. Two blue eyes shined back at him as Buck tightened his jaw and pawed at the arm still wrapped around his throat. The man stretched his neck to peer out the window as Eddie backed out of the parking space before he dipped back down, pulling Buck with him until only the top of Buck’s curls, the ones that had been glowing under the fairy lights minutes before, would be visible.

Eddie pulled into traffic and kept his driving steady because the last thing they needed was to get in a wreck while Buck had a gun to his head.

“Look, man,” Eddie started because it was the only thing he could do in that situation. “I just filled up the tank. You can take the truck and go wherever you want. Just let us out—“

“Well, then you shouldn’t have any problems getting onto the freeway and heading south, now will you?”

“So, then where are we heading? The border?” Eddie flipped his turn signal on to switch lanes.

“I’m pretty sure I told you to shut up!” 

Eddie’s hands tightened around the steering wheel at Buck’s bleated squeak that echoed in the cab. He glanced in his rearview mirror and bit down on the inside of his cheek until the skin was swollen and coppery on his tongue. The man was clutching Buck close to him like a doll and while the glint of the gun caught the reflection of the street lights, Eddie was more concerned with the deepening color of Buck’s face. Buck’s cheeks flushed red as the arm wrapped around his throat tightened when the man shifted to look out the window again. Buck’s fingers slipped into the crook of the man’s elbow as a flash of panic dashed across Buck’s face but either the man didn’t care or he didn’t notice the whistled exhale slip past Buck’s lips.

“You mind easing up on my boyfriend? He’s not fighting you.” Eddie had tried to sound calm but even he couldn’t quite keep the pinched edge out of his voice.

The man bit out a curse but thankfully, unflexed his arm enough for Buck to suck in some air.

“If you do as I say I won’t hurt either one of you.”

That Eddie didn’t buy and judging from the doubtful look on Buck’s face in the mirror, he didn’t either. They’d seen the police presence. You didn’t garner that much attention from the LAPD from not hurting people. Eddie’s stomach twisted into a heavy knot as he caught Buck’s gaze again. They faced some level of danger most days or, at least, the fallout left behind. But Buck was in the center of the blast radius of this awaiting bomb and Eddie would give anything to switch places with Buck if he could.

“It’ll be okay,” Eddie said to him, making a promise he couldn’t keep but he vowed to try anyway.

Buck blinked back the last of the bleeding panic from his eyes, fluttering those lashes against his still pink skin, and nodded.

“ _Stop talking and drive,”_ the man said as he pushed the gun against Buck’s temple with a rattle that made Buck wince.

Eddie clenched his jaw and navigated through traffic to the freeway. He couldn’t risk crashing the truck, not with Buck unbuckled in the back, but there had to be something he could do. Something to give them a chance because Eddie knew with a cold certainty that the promise for their cooperation wasn’t freedom.

They’d been having such a good night. The _best_ night. The fact that it all went to shit in a matter of seconds only made Eddie more determined to make it up to Buck. He had to think of something.

Eddie caught sight of a familiar cruiser in his mirror like an answer to his wordless prayer as his pulse thrummed beneath his skin. He flicked his turn signal on again as he slowed to a stop in a left turn lane and tried to keep his expression neutral as Athena pulled up beside him.

“ _Fuck!”_ The man blew out.

He bunched himself further beneath Buck in an almost impossible angle and dragged Buck further against him. Buck’s protest was muffled into a huff as the man’s hand clamped over his mouth.

“Make a sound and I’ll put a bullet in him.”

Eddie couldn’t see the gun and he couldn’t feel it but the heat of it being pointed him was like a hot shrapnel in his side. Sweat dripped into the small of his back as the phantom searing threatened to consume him.

Athena flashed her lights twice and Eddie moved to roll down his window.

“Don’t you dare!” The man hissed, yanking Buck’s head to the side so Eddie could see the threat in his eyes.

“It’ll be weird if I ignore her. We know each other.”

“ _Are you two cops?”_

“Firefighters,” Eddie said mildly, taking note that the light still hadn’t changed.

Two more squad cars snuck in from the east and west side and Athena was looking at Eddie with a seriousness he’d only ever seen her wear on the job like it was another badge on her chest.

“If you say anything, I’ll put a bullet in you and then two in him.” The man jerked his chin at Buck and then clamped his hand down harder across Buck’s lips until his knuckles were white.

Eddie rolled down the window and was somehow able to muster up the enthusiasm to smile at her.

“Hey Athena,” Eddie said with a cheer in his voice that was a little forced and too sweet for his own ears.

“Hi Eddie,” Athena said, her voice flat even as it took an uptick towards conversational. “I thought you and Buck had a date tonight. At that place in Bellmont Square?”

“Yeah. Just finishing up for the night. Heading home. How’s your night been?”

“Pretty quiet. Just chasing a couple of bad guys, you know?”

Her question was layered and thick between them and Eddie picked it up immediately. He gave her a barely there dip of his chin in a nod and she put her cruiser in park. Had it been anyone else, Eddie probably wouldn’t have been able to spot her almost silent fishing but Athena had become more than just a coworker or his boss’s wife. She was family and he wrapped his fists around the lifeline she was tossing into the water for him.

“Is that Buckaroo in the back?” Athena asked, her eyes pointed as she silently slipped out of her cruiser. “I would recognize those curls anywhere.”

“Yeah,” Eddie said, easily though he didn’t know how he managed. “Had one too many drinks tonight. He’s already started sleeping it off.”

Athena gave him a tight nod and the iron fist wrapped around Eddie’s heart eased a little bit. 

Cruisers skidded into the intersection with their lights off and cops were spilling out into traffic, directing people in their cars to get down or back up. Eddie glanced in the rearview and saw the same thing behind them. They were boxed in. 

As if sensing them, Eddie’s gaze drifted to meet Buck’s blue eyes in the rearview mirror again. The man seemed more preoccupied listening to Athena to have noticed but Buck would know. Buck stared up at him from the slope of his nose and beneath those eyelashes, the man’s anchored hand over his mouth forcing him to bare his neck, and Buck’s chest was heaving from his awkward arched back. But he seemed just as steady at hearing Athena’s voice as Eddie felt seeing her position herself with her hand on her hip.

“What about you, Eddie?” Athena asked, unclipping her gun and tipping her head down towards it so he knew what she was asking. “Have you had anything to drink tonight?”

“Just a beer.”

“Just the one?”

“That I know of.”

Athena gave him another tight nod and made a hand gesture to the crouching officers that were trying to stay out of view of Eddie’s mirrors.

The man shifted again, agitation rippling off him in waves, and the extra stress on Buck’s back was enough for him to release a smothered whimper.

“ _Shut up!”_ The man hissed into Buck’s ear.

“Eddie?” Athena called and Eddie clenched his jaw as he forced himself to tear his gaze away. “Did that restaurant do tables for one? Think you might go for a solo lunch?”

Eddie shook his head, knowing what she was asking him.

“Not without Buck.”

Athena’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “I figured you’d say that.”

She squared her stance behind her squad car and aimed her gun at the truck.

“Stop talking to her and drive away _.”_ The man ordered, seething in his quietness. “ _Drive away or I will shoot him!”_

Eddie’s palms went clammy as he caught sight of the officers sneaking around his truck and he dropped his finger to hover over the child lock button.

“Did you hear me?”

Buck jolted as the gun was shoved beside his Adam’s apple into his throat.

 _“_ I said drive away! _Now!_ ”

Buck’s hands slipped to wrap around the wrist attached to the hand holding the gun as it jabbed him while his boot pushed up against the passenger seat.

“Drive or I swear to God I’ll kill—”

Eddie pressed the button and the locks disengaged with a swift simultaneous _thunk_ around them just as an officer yanked the backseat door open. Buck and the man dipped half out of the truck in the sudden lurch with twinned yelps that started a discord of commands, sounds of struggling, and the gasping breath of Buck fighting to get free.

Eddie felt the gunshot before he heard it and his heart dropped into his stomach. The reverberate report made the steering wheel beneath his hands shake as the truck rocked. Sparks blasted as the metal of the truck roof was pierced with the hot metal of the wayward bullet and Eddie only just caught a glimpse of Buck struggling with the man to keep the gun pointed in the air before someone was opening his door and dragging him out of the truck.

“Get down! Get down!” The officer that pulled Eddie was pushing down on his head and covering him with his body but Eddie squirmed to see beneath him as Buck and the man fell into a heap of tangled limbs.

Athena’s voice was the loudest over the shouted commands and Eddie tracked her as she ran around her cruiser and into the scuffle. Buck fell onto his stomach and clawed at the ground to get away just as the man lunged for him again.

“Buck!”

Eddie didn’t realize he was fighting the officer until the officer physically had to pin him to the ground with a knee in his back and even then, he didn’t stop! Not when Buck was on the other side of the truck and still within spitting distance of the man. But then Athena was bending down and grabbing onto Buck’s arms as she dragged him out of the fight. It took the two of them all of a second to realize that Buck was finally free before Athena was pulling Buck to her and throwing her arms around him. Buck collapsed against her, his eyes wide and his chest heaving, before he was swinging his gaze around in a desperate search.

“Eddie? _Eddie!”_

Athena was trying to calm Buck down but it was like all of Buck’s muscles decided to twitch into a never ending vibration after being too still for too long.

“Buck!”

Buck turned at his name and met Eddie’s gaze beneath the truck. The sound that fell out of Buck’s mouth tore Eddie’s heart in two and the only thing that kept Buck from crawling under the truck to get to him was Athena. Eddie would have to remember to apologize to the officer who shielded him from any further harm because he was pretty sure he knocked him on his ass in his mad scramble to his feet.

“ _Eddie!”_

Eddie’s boots skidded beneath him as he rounded the front of his truck and dropped to his knees. Buck all but fell into his arms and what felt like the first time since they’d gotten in the truck, the tightness in his chest released.

“Are you okay?” Eddie gasped as he ran his hands up and down Buck’s back and into his hair.

The man had taken the brunt of the fall but they’d still crashed to the ground hard. His hand ran over hot, raised skin and Buck flinched back like he’d been burned. Eddie cupped his jaw, murmuring nonsensical nothings, and held him back.

“Let me see. Let me see, Buck,” Eddie said as he maneuvered Buck so he could see the damage.

Buck’s shirt was torn from his collar all the way down to the seam of his armpit with long, angry scratch lines clawed across his cold skin. Red marks in the shape of fingers outlined his lips and his forearm where he must have caught himself was scrapped with a nice road rash from the scuffle. But he was okay.

Oh, thank God he was okay!

Buck was running his own hands over Eddie’s torso before they settled to curl around Eddie’s wrists and pushed against his pulse point. Eddie watched as Buck counted the beats against his fingers before he shuddered and his muscles quivered into endless shaking with the adrenaline crash. Eddie could have been shaking too for all he knew. It felt like the earth beneath him was moving but with Buck in his arms he was braced for anything.

Buck squeezed his eyes shut.

“Eddie!” His name came out a croaked sob that was breathless and relieved as he fell back against Eddie.

Eddie dropped onto his butt and wrapped his arms around Buck tight, pressing kiss after kiss against his head and inhaling the calming smell of Buck's shampoo in his curls. The lingering scent of cigarettes reeked off Buck’s clothes and Eddie tried to smother it through sheer will alone.

“ _I’m going to kill you!”_ The man screeched as he was hauled away by four officers but the words cut through what thin layer of calm Eddie and Buck had settled over them.

Buck shrank away from the screaming like the words themselves were cutting at his skin and pushed himself further against Eddie. Eddie took his weight without question and curled himself tighter around him.

Athena supervised the arrest as the officers threw the man into the back of a cruiser before she hurried over to them again.

“You two okay?”

Eddie’s heart was still pounding against his chest and Buck was still shaking so hard it was practically rippling into the ground beneath them but he nodded.

They were okay.

They were okay.

“How’d you know?” Eddie asked, his throat bone dry and rough against his vocal chords.

“A biker saw him drag Buck into the back when you were in the parking lot. Called it in.” Athena gave the back of Buck’s head a pointed look. “RA unit is about four minutes out.”

“I’m fine,” Buck said like it was a habit and not at all convincing with his face still hidden against Eddie’s shoulder.

“Well, I’d believe that if I didn’t just have a front row seat to you spilling out onto the pavement with a convicted felon on the run glued to your back.”

Eddie pushed his hand through Buck’s curls to check for any bumps and bruises again. When he found none, just endless thick hair and the smooth untouched skin of his scalp, Eddie cupped his head and ducked down to press a long kiss to Buck’s forehead, leaving his lips there to linger against his skin. The background sound of sirens settled over them again as the cruiser with the man drove away and an ambulance turned the corner down the street.

They were okay.

They were okay.

“Hey Eddie,” Buck said, sniffing as he started to sag.

“Yeah, Buck?”

Buck turned his head and pressed his cheek against Eddie’s collar bone as he watched the ambulance pull up beside them. Eddie rubbed circles into Buck’s back and pressed another kiss to his brow.

“For date night,” Buck said. “McDonalds’ in my Jeep is fine.”

And, yeah, Eddie could do McDonalds’. If it made Buck happy then McDonalds’ in his jeep, he could do.


End file.
